Acknowledgments, First Edition

My thanks are due, first of all, to the National Endowment for the Humanities, which has lent me faithful assistance through its Translations Program in the Division of Research Programs. But for such generosity it is most unlikely that I would have been able to finish the last installment of the translation so quickly.

I am fortunate to have in “Joch” Weintraub and “Chris” Gamwell two deans who are eager to provide for their faculty an enabling context. With word and deed they have given me unfailing support.

James Cheng and Ma Tai-loi of Chicago’s Far Eastern Library have been invaluable helpers in research and the location of obscure materials. Wenching Tsien’s exquisite calligraphy validates my belief that reading footnotes can be a pleasure. Susan Fogelson has been a tireless typist and discerning critic, and Charles Hallisey has provided painstaking assistance in the preparation of the index. As was the case with volume 3, Y.W. Ma (Hawaii) gave the manuscript a thorough and searching reading, though I alone am responsible for the final version.

As I bring this lengthy project to its completion, it is fitting for me to pay tribute to my late grandfather, who first introduced me to the wonders of this tale. It was he who, amidst the terrors of the Sino-Japanese war, gave himself unsparingly to teaching me Classical Chinese and English. By precept and example he sought to impart to a young boy his enduring love for literatures east and west. He did not labor in vain.